Fool's Paradise (2005)

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As young musicians growing up together in North Carolina, Monday Morning’s primaries – Derek, guitarist Justin Blythe, bassist Kevin Stipe (Derek’s brother), and drummer Kent Rector – were nurtured in the support of family, friends, and a community that encouraged them to follow their musical dreams. ‘The first show we played was for 800 people,’ Justin says, remembering the band’s earliest support. ‘But the more we played and were accepted, the more we realized, on some levels, that we needed to branch out.’

Independent records and regional touring brought Monday Morning a larger fan base as well as interest from music industry veterans like David Bach, who currently serves as Selectric’s label chief. Bach held a similar position with a different company when he first met Monday Morning and signed the fledgling group to a multi-layered deal. But the band and Bach were both set adrift in the wake of mergers and acquisitions, a situation that left Monday Morning’s direction uncertain but creative fires untouched. ‘There came a point afterwards where we made the decision, ‘Let’s work really, really hard to be great live,’’ Justin says, ‘so we’d rehearse three times a week, eight hours a stretch, and we did that for the better part of a year.’ ‘In those six months following the label fallout, we wrote some aggressive stuff,’ Derek says. ‘‘ Wonder of it All ’ happened at the tail end of that period when I was writing all this angry stuff and finally came to the realization that I just had to let everything go. It was like putting on paper everything that had angered me for a year or two and saying, ‘It’s over with. There’s nothing I can do about it. There’s something else for me out there.’’

That something else was a renewed professional relationship with Bach, now at the new 3.1 Productions enterprise forged by industry veterans John and Dino Elefante. Bach brought Monday Morning on board the company’s rock imprint, Selectric Records, and Fool’s Paradise was born. ‘David Bach signed us twice…that’s why he’s the greatest A&R guy ever,’ laughs Derek, sparking similar reactions from his bandmates. ‘The first time we signed a record deal, it was in a big conference room, everybody shaking hands. When we signed with Selectric, it was us hanging out in Subway back home, signing over a meatball sub. A little bit different, but maybe a little better.’ It’s in finding solutions to problems that Monday Morning’s maturity also shows through, partnering with New Orleans-based organization Desire Street Ministries as a pattern for actively engaging in the lives of communities. It’s Monday Morning’s hope that the messages contained on Fool’s Paradise will spur listeners to action.